Man given suspended sentence for threatening to "burn down mosque"

The local paper, Lancashire Telegraph, reports on the sentencing of a man who shouted abuse at Muslims in Blackburn threatening to “burn down their mosque”.

Phillip Townley, who was drunk at the time, was being spoken to by police officers on Darwen Street in Blackburn when he started shouting abuse at onlookers across the road. Abuse shouted by Townley included a threat to burn down a mosque.

The local paper reports, “Townley, 56, pleaded guilty to racially-aggravated threatening behaviour. He was sentenced to 20 weeks in prison suspended for 18 months, made subject to an electronically-monitored curfew between 8pm and 8am for six weeks and ordered to pay £280 costs.”